Many users of this website have achieved 100+ WPM (words per minute) scores in typing test WPM. Do you know how this is possible in typing tests? Although there are several reasons behind such high scores in typing tests, there are two main reasons – (a) muscle memory and (b) practice, practice, and practice.

Muscle memory can be defined as “when you do the same task over and over again, your body and brain learn to perform this task without conscious effort”. The more you practice, the better muscle memory is achieved. At this stage, your fingers know where the keys are positioned in the keyword. So, you do not need to look at the keyboard to type anything.

If you follow the typing training tips and techniques below, you can achieve 100+ typing test WPM without looking at the screen of your device such as a computer. A good typing speed will help you years after years by saving time, gaining higher productivity, ensuring efficiency, and many more.

Get ready for tough typing

What is touch typing? Touch typing or touch type or touch keyboarding is typing using all one's fingers and without looking at the keys. So, you must type without using the sense of sight to find the keys and use all your fingers instead of use a few fingertips and even nails to type. Expert typists are touch typists. The following sections will guide you to become a touch typist.

Always practice typing to become an expert touch typist.

Maintain the correct sitting posture for typing

If your sitting position is not correct, this can be tiring.

You should not only sit straight but also keep your back straight.

Your chair should have proper support for your back.

Feel free to place a small pillow between your back and your chair if your chair does not have any built-in cushion for your lower back.

There should be minimum from 45 to 70 centimeters distance between your eyes and the screen.

But you should not sit far away from your computer too. This will make hard to type.

Place the screen in such a place that it is in the same height of your head when you look forward. As an alternative, you can adjust your chair if you are using an adjustable chair.

When you keep your fingers on the keyboard, your elbow should be in 90 degree angle.

When you type, you should feel comfortable and allow minimum strain to your shoulder, arm, and wrist muscles.

Try to put your feet flat on the floor if it is OK with you.

Your fingers should be just a little curved.

Remember that you arms should always be relaxed.

Typing on your lap is not recommended. Type at a desk or table. The place where you sit and type should be comfortable, well-lit, and well-ventilated.

Always follow the keyboard scheme

Amateurs use the wrong fingers to press keys in the keyboard. But expects use the correct finger to press every key. It is hard to remember which finger you should use to press which key. But it is not a problem at all.

These 144 free typing lessons and/or exercises cover from letters to numbers to symbols. This series of 144 typing practice exercises is kind of “all in one” typing test speed test online version for every touch typing learner.

Practice, practice, and practice

How long should you practice typing? You should practice typing as long as you do not achieve professional scores in your typing tests. Do you want to achieve even higher such as 100+ WPM? If so, do not stop. Keep practicing. This is the only way to reach your goals.

Here are some achievement goals/targets for each level of progress:

Beginner level goals: Two goals – (a) just try to build the good habit of using the right fingers to press the right key and (b) make sure that you can easily and correctly press the keys in function row, number row, tab row, home row, bottom row, and space bar row.

Intermediate level goals: Two goals – (a) identify which keys or key combinations are giving you trouble and practice typing more to iron these errors out and (b) make sure you can accurately and comfortably use both hands and all fingers to press the keys.

Advanced level goals: Three goals – (a) build muscle memory so that you can accurately type fast without looking at the keys, (b) achieve a professional score in every typing speed test and (c) develop natural rhythm when you type.

How long should you practice every day? You should practice at least 30 (thirty) minutes or more. Ideal time is – at least one hour or more. Divide your practice in many short periods. Practicing long periods are less useful than practicing many short periods.

Begin by practicing individual letters

You should start with not only the letters but also other individual keys such as numbers and symbols. Next, you should try to type words accurately. Finally, you should type sentences and paragraphs. This step by step process is easy and comfortable to follow. Take this typing test online to see how it works.

Save typing test results to measure your progress

Typing speed is usually measured in WPM unit in a typing speed test. Before you start any practice, take a typing test and save the score i.e. typing test WPM. Now you can start practicing. Time to time take a typing test and save your results. These results will help you to understand and analyze your progress over time.

Practice with typing apps and free typing games

Besides free typing practice apps, there are many free typing apps and free typing games available on the Internet. Some of the free typing games are very much interesting and addicting. You can start with a free typing game and then try more such free typing games. The good thing with free typing games is – you will not easily get bored when you play a free typing game.

Nitro Type Race is a street fight game. You own a military vehicle and destroy enemy vehicles by typing the correct words.

Our ZType / Z Type game is played and enjoyed by many users every day.

Our site saves your typing test online. Just go to the certificate page for typing speed test free and log in before you start your typing test online.

The secrets of the F and J keys

Did you ever notice raised bumps on each of the F key and J key? If not, notice now. Why are raised bumps added to these keys?

When your index fingers rest on the F and J keys, your other fingers will naturally fall into other keys.

In other words, you do not need to look away from your screen if your index fingers are on these keys because you can easily locate any key you need to press. Whenever you sit to type something, start by placing your index fingers on these raised bumps. So, your left hand fingers should be on “ASDF” keys and right hand fingers on “JKL;” keys. Now you are ready to start typing.

Do not look at the keys when you type and practice typing test

The fact is - looking at the keyboard actually slows a typist down. So, you should memorize the position of each key. When you start practicing, you may make mistakes. But it is OK. No one became an expert typist without making mistakes.

Just remember that the more you practice, the better your fingers will automatically be able to find the right key and press it without your conscious effort. This way your muscle memory will grow.

But if you look at the keys and type, this will delay your learning. In fact, this is the incorrect way of learning typing. So, try to avoid this from day one.

Another important suggestion here is - to improve your typing speed and reduce stress on your hands, position your fingers close to the base position of your keyboard.

Do you want to take a challenge and force yourself to learn the key positions? Okay! Buy a Das Keyboard Ultimate because it is a blank keyboard. It will be useless even if you look at the keyboard. Does this sound challenging and interesting?

Higher accuracy can result in higher speed typing

When you make a lot of mistakes, it slows down your speed. Did you notice? On the other hand, there is no use of fast typing speed if you are making a lot of mistakes. As a beginner, take your time and use the correct fingers to press the keys and thus, try to be accurate in your typing practice and typing speed test. The more accurate you become, the higher speed you will see.

Another point is – you waste your time, energy, productivity when you make a lot of mistakes and use the backspace key many times to delete first and then correct the errors. So, it is perfectly OK to slow down and try to be more accurate. Do not worry. Eventually, speed will follow you. When you slow down and try to be accurate, you will feel relaxed and more in control.

You should never worry about speed in practice typing test. Instead, try to be accurate in your typing test speed test online! So, feel free to slow down when you find that your typing is getting less accurate.

When you are a beginner, try to repeatedly type sample passages over and over again. It has two benefits – you gain accuracy and speed at the same time. Give a try and you will understand how it works.

You should minimize your physical effort

Your keyboard is good enough to register a keystroke with a light touch. So, there is no need to type with force. This just drains your energy out and strains your wrists and hands.

When you type, your finger muscles are not only involved but also your hands, arms, back, shoulders, neck and head muscles are involved. Forceful typing strains all these muscles. So, always use the minimum force necessary to type.

Stretch your wrists when they get stiff

It is common among typists when their wrists get stiff if they type for a longer period of time. Stiff wrists will surely slow down you speed. But how should you stretch your wrists? Go to Youtube.com and search for “wrist stretching exercises” and you will find several exercises. Click here to watch a quick and easy wrist stretching exercise. This kind of exercise can bring back energy and mobility of your wrists and fingers.

Use basic keyboard shortcuts to navigate faster

When you use shortcuts, your hands are still on the keyboard. But when you use your mouse, your hands go away from the keyboard. Finally, your hand comes back on the keyboard. It consumes and/or wastes your valuable typing time. The less you save the mouse, the more time you save.

We have given a list of basic shortcuts so that you can learn right from here and start using them.

Sl.

Platform

Shortcuts

Descriptions

1.

Word File

Ctrl + C

Copy selected item

2.

Word File

Ctrl + X

Cut selected item

3.

Word File

Ctrl + V

Paste

4.

Word File

Ctrl + Z

Undo

5.

Word File

Ctrl + S

Save current file

6.

Word File

Ctrl + F

Select the search box to search for word(s)

7.

Word File

Ctrl + A

Select everything

8.

Word File

Shift + Left Arrow

Select previous letter

9.

Word File

Shift + Right Arrow

Select next letter

10.

Word File

Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow

Select previous word

11.

Word File

Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow

Select next word

12.

Word File

Ctrl + Left Arrow

Navigate cursor to previous word without selecting

13.

Word File

Ctrl + Right Arrow

Navigate cursor to next word without selecting

14.

Word File

Home

Go to start of line

15.

Word File

End

Go to end of line

16.

Word File

Page up

Scroll up

17.

Word File

Page Down

Scroll down

18.

Browser

Ctrl + Tab

Move forward through tabs

19.

Browser

Ctrl + Shift + Tab

Move back through tabs

20.

Browser

Ctrl + T

Open a new tab

21.

Browser

Ctrl + W

Close current tab

22.

Browser

Ctrl + Shift + T

Open previously closed tab

23.

Browser

Ctrl + R

Refresh current webpage

24.

Browser

Ctrl + N

Open a new browser window

25.

Browser

Backspace

Go back one page

26.

Browser

Shift + Backspace

Go forward one page

27.

Windows

Alt + Tab

Switch to next opened window

28.

Windows

Alt + F4

Close current window

Keep at least one or both thumbs on the space bar

Oftentimes, we need to type one or more spaces. If you keep at least one or both the thumbs on the space bar, you will never need to shift your hands around to type one or more spaces between two words. So, do not take both your thumbs off the space bar at the same time. This will surely save your time.

Always use your new touch typing habit

Do use your 10 (ten) fingers during your practice in offline or online typing test i.e. speed typing test. Use ten fingers touch typing when you chat with someone. Use ten fingers touch typing when you type an email, assignment, or anything. Just totally avoid your hunt and peck typing habit.

Use a keyboard you are comfortable with

There are different shapes and sizes of keyboards. But you should use the one that you are comfortable with. Another important thing is – the larger the key sizes are, the easier it will be to type. Besides, the keys should have enough resistance to inform you that the stroke has registered. This also helps to avoid accidentally hitting keys.

Buy a mechanical keyboard

Yes, seriously. When you achieve 60 or more WPM and want to keep improve, buy a mechanical keyboard. These keyboards are ideal for typing even faster. But there are two things to remember. First, you do not need this keyboard if you are a beginner. Try this only after you achieve 60 ore more WPM as we said earler. Second, it will take some time to get used to this type of keyboard.

If you buy such a keyboard, use this free typing lessons test page to see how you are performing with your new keyboard in free words per minute test.

Do not go back

Most people have the bad habit of typing with only two fingers or a few fingers. They are very comfortable with this habit and feel strong resistance from their inner side as soon as they need to change the habit and get used to using all the fingers of both hands.

Surely, it can take weeks before your fingers get conditioned to take control of the keys they are responsible for. At the beginning, this can be uncomfortable free typing tests WPM. But do not give up (even if your initial progress is slow) and go back to your previous typing habit. Have patience and keep trying.

Do not use your hunt and peck method any more in your offline or online typing test / speed typing test. Leave it behind forever. Try a free typing test right now on our free typing lessons test if you wish to.

Join a typing class

If you have tried to learn by yourself but failed to see improvements in an online typing test or do not find free typing test lessons online helpful, a good alternative is to take a typing class. Your instructor can personally help you. Many schools, community colleges, and education programs offer typing or keyboard classes. So, you should check to see if your institution offers a typing class.

Some other important suggestions

Here go some other short but important suggestions to follow:

If you are a beginner, it will surely take some time before see results of your typing word per minute test. Do not rush or give up. Your patience is important. Does this make sense?

As you keep practicing, your mistakes will slowly decrease and you will gain speed. Please do not expect to see good typing speed within a short period of time.

When you cannot concentrate and are making a lot of mistakes, take a break and come back later to continue practicing again.